Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Honduras: Working hard

We spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at a school in the village of "La Canada."

This is one of the school buildings. Spending time in La Canada was heartbreaking. The village was a true picture of abject poverty. The school buildings were basic cinderblock rooms with no electricity and the playground was a small area where the grass had been worn away to dirt (see frisbee picture below). Abuse, molestation and paternal abandonment was rampant in the village. I can safely say that all 19 of us wanted to take all these children away from their surroundings, and the hard lesson to learn is that we couldnt save them. But we brought the Word of God to the children of La Canada and truly Jesus is the only thing that can give these children the hope that they long for.

We taught the children many new songs, including "Father Abraham" (Padre Abraham), "I'm in the Lord's Army " (Soldado soy de Jesus), "Jesus loves me" (Christo me ama), and "I've got the Joy" (Yo tengo gozo).

You know you're singing these songs in your head right now. Oldies but goodies.

We also taught a different Bible story each day. Monday we talked about Zacchaeus, Tuesday we talked about Noah & the flood and then Wednesday we presented the Gospel message. Each day, the kids also did a craft relating to the Bible story. The last day, we helped them make the wordless book, which we hope they'll be able to take home to their families and pass along the message of Jesus.

We also had game/fun time each day. The children loved throwing frisbees, and were delighted to learn that we had brought a frisbee for each one of them! What's even better-- every frisbee also had the gospel message printed on it in spanish. We truly poured into these children from beginning to end and can only hope and pray that the seeds of God's Word are planted in the hearts of these wonderful children.

This little girl was remarkable and heartbreaking. She came from a home with no father and her mother was often away. She was left to care for her 3 infant siblings. Her home was dirty and food was scarce. She had been kicked out of the school for sleeping in class, but walked over from her home when we arrived. She is 7 years old.

This little gal stole my heart away. She is my little amiga! Always smiley and a total chatterbox, even though neither of us knew what the other was trying to say.

This little guy is a total ladykiller.

It was incredibly hard to say goodbye to these kiddos on Wednesday afternoon. There were many hugs and kisses and tears involved! The teachers pulled us aside and told us how thankful they were for us. They also told us that every single child was present (all 154 of them!) that day, which is something that has never happened before. We were all so thankful that we spent the day Wednesday sharing the message of Jesus and that all the children were able to hear it.

After VBS was completed, we did work for Rhonda at Destino. We spent time painting (although some of us got more paint on ourselves than on the railings!), weeding and doing general cleanup on the campus.

On Monday night, Rhonda took us out for pizza!!!! Who would've ever thought you could get great pizza in Honduras!? It was a delicious treat and a great night of fun and fellowship!